Professor Patrick Joseph Nolan (11 August 1894 – 28 December 1984) was an Irish physicist. Like his older brother, physicist John James Nolan, he specialised in

atmospheric physics Within the atmospheric sciences, atmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, che ...

. In 1971, he was awarded the

Boyle Medal Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

by the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

. He was born in

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. North ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

, and educated at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

. He earned a BSc in 1914, coming first in his class, and an MSc followed in 1915. A

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called ''university college, constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under t ...

travelling studentship in experimental physics (awarded in 1917) facilitated his spending some time doing research at the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

–at that time led by

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' considers him to be the greatest ...

.The Royal Dublin Society: Patrick J. Nolan In 1922, he married Una Hurley from near

Bantry Bantry () is a town in the civil parish of Kilmocomoge in the barony of Bantry on the southwest coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies in West Cork at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for to the west. The Beara Peninsula is ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

, a younger sister of his brother John's wife. The couple had no children. He was an uncle of abstract painter Evin Nolan. From 1921 to 1928 he held the post of Lecturer on Experimental Physics at St Patrick's College in Maynooth. He spent the rest of his career at UCD, having been awarded his PhD there in 1922. In the 1930s and 1940s, he worked alongside his brother John, and numerous post graduate students, studying

ionization Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule i ...

, and atmospheric electrical parameters. He was appointed Professor of Geophysics in 1954, and retired in 1964. His publications included papers on the charge equilibrium of nuclei as it relates to the Boltzmann law, the combination of ions and nuclei, and the determination of the recombination coefficient of small ions. Patrick J. Nolan is best remembered for the 1940s development of the

Photoelectric The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a material. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physics, and solid sta ...

Nucleus Counter with L. W. Pollak. This counter was long the standard instrument for the measurement of

cloud condensation nuclei Cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs), also known as cloud seeds, are small particles typically 0.2 µm, or one hundredth the size of a cloud droplet. CCNs are a unique subset of aerosols in the atmosphere on which water vapour condenses. This c ...

. Nolan Served on the Governing Board of the School of Cosmic Physics at the

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) ( ga, Institiúid Ard-Léinn Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a statutory independent research institute in Ireland. It was established in 1940 on the initiative of the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, in Dub ...

from 1947-1981.Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies: Council and Governing Boards as of 31/3/1949
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References

Sources

* O'Connor, Thomas C. (2001).
The Evolution of Condensation Nucleus Counters
', Department of Physics, National University of Ireland, Galway
The Royal Dublin Society: Patrick J. Nolan
* McCartney, Mark and Whitaker, Andrew (2003).
Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision
' Bristol and Philadelphia : Institute of Physics, {{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Patrick Joseph 1894 births 1984 deaths People from Omagh Irish physicists 20th-century Irish mathematicians Alumni of University College Dublin Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies